{"id":52343,"date":"2024-05-30T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2048155"},"modified":"2024-05-30T12:45:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T10:45:07","slug":"star-trek-discovery-season-5-ending-explained-what-happened-to-burnham","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/star-trek-discovery-season-5-ending-explained-what-happened-to-burnham\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek: Discovery season 5 ending explained \u2013 What happened to Burnham?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything you need to know! <\/p>

By Alex Moreland\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 09:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Warning: Full spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Discovery season 5 episode 10.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Star Trek: Discovery<\/a> finale Life, Itself opens in the midst of battle.<\/p>\n

As the USS Discovery and her crew take on the Breen, Michael Burnham wakes up in a strange and unfamiliar environment. She\u2019s unable to get in touch with anyone from Discovery, or make sense of any of her tricorder data \u2013 she\u2019s in a vast, seemingly infinite corridor, the walls made up of a series of a windows.<\/p>\n

The windows, Burnham speculates, are portals of some kind: possibly viewing stations for the Progenitors to monitor the progress of different planets, or maybe the mechanism they used to seed life through the galaxy in the first place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an extended sequence that follows Burnham alone, a reminder as the series comes to a close of how important Sonequa Martin-Green\u2019s expressive performance has been as an anchor for Star Trek: Discovery<\/a> over the years.<\/p>\n

Read on for our spoiler-filled summary of the Star Trek: Discovery finale, with a full breakdown of what happened to Michael Burnham, the answer to the mystery of the Progenitors\u2019 tech, and where the crew of the USS Discovery eventually find themselves.<\/p>\n

What happened to the Breen in Star Trek: Discovery?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Outside the Progenitors\u2019 realm, the crew of Discovery and the rest of Starfleet are taking steps to find Burnham.<\/p>\n

Things are looking increasingly tense because of the imminent arrival of Tahal, a brutal Breen primarch \u2013 as Commander Rayner prepares the Discovery for battle, Saru argues with Admiral Vance that he should be allowed to attempt a diplomatic approach.<\/p>\n

Both are risky ventures, but everyone is running out of options \u2013 the Progenitors\u2019 tech can\u2019t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n

Book resolves to fly directly towards the Progenitors\u2019 portal \u2013 Doctor Culber insists on joining him, believing that this is the answer to the spiritual absence he\u2019s felt since the zhiantara ritual on Trill.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saru \u2013 accompanied by Commander Nhan \u2013 engages with Tahal, and though the Breen primarch is quick to shut down discussions, they glean some important information about her motivations.<\/p>\n

\"Sonequa\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham and Doug Jones as Saru in Star Trek: Discovery.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marni Grossman \/Paramount+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Elsewhere, Saru and Nahn confront Tahal \u2013 steely and determined, Saru intimidates the Breen primarch into backing away from the fight<\/strong>. It solves one of their Breen problems, but not the other, with Discovery still under attack from the original group.<\/p>\n

Rayner has an idea to deal with the Breen, but it\u2019s unorthodox: using the spore drive to jump something that isn\u2019t the Discovery.<\/p>\n

After some back and forth with Tilly and Stamets \u2013 can they really reverse the polarity of the quantum entanglement? \u2013 they action one of the riskiest black alert procedures has ever attempted. Discovery\u2019s hull and saucer section separate, and position themselves on either side of the Breen dreadnought \u2013 and manage to warp it to the other side of the galaxy.<\/p>\n

What was the Progenitors\u2019 tech in Star Trek: Discovery?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Burnham steps through one such portal, finding herself on a wet and windy gravel planet \u2013 for a moment, it seems like she\u2019s gone to a Welsh quarry for a Doctor Who<\/a> crossover \u2013 before being confronted by the Breen.<\/p>\n

A brief struggle follows, and Michael escapes back to the central hub of the Progenitors \u2013 where she\u2019s confronted by Moll, in pursuit of the same Progenitor technology, hoping to bring her partner L\u2019Ak back to life.<\/p>\n

The ensuing fight sees Burnham and Moll find themselves falling through different planets, a montage of bright pink forests and scalding lava pits. Burnham appeals to Moll directly, promising that she personally will do whatever she can to help L\u2019Ak \u2013 and the pair tentatively agree to work together.<\/p>\n

\"Sonequa\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery.<\/span><\/figcaption> Marni Grossman\/Paramount+<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Burnham and Moll find the source of the Progenitors\u2019 power, seemingly in a field of yellow shrubbery. There\u2019s one last riddle to solve: using a series of triangular tiles, they must \u201cmake the shape out of the one between the many\u201d.<\/p>\n

They argue about what this could mean, whether it might have been a mistranslation, before a garbled hail attempt from Book \u2013 distracting Michael enough for Moll to attack her, knocking her unconscious.<\/p>\n

Moll attempts to use the technology, making one big triangle with nine of the smaller tiles \u2013 but she\u2019s misunderstood the riddle, and is zapped unconscious herself.<\/p>\n

From the outside, the portal to the Progenitors\u2019 realm begins to fluctuate and appear to move. Book and Culber attempt to steady the portal, using a subspace frequency that Culber remembers from the zhiantara ritual.<\/p>\n

Michael regains consciousness and attempts her own solution \u2013 not making the shape with the tiles, but arranging them such that the larger triangle is constructed from the negative space between the tiles, a more literal interpretation of \u201cthe one between the many\u201d. Her idea works \u2013 and summons a Progenitor, swathed in white, calm, almost holy in appearance and mannerisms.<\/p>\n

The Progenitor reveals the extent of the technology: they didn\u2019t create it themselves, but rather found it, speculating that it was left behind by whatever ancient race once created them<\/strong>. (It\u2019s tribbles all the way down.) The limitations of the technology also become clear, though \u2013 there\u2019s no way for Moll to bring back L\u2019Ak, not really, not how he was.<\/p>\n